Hindu woman police officer found dead in Bangladesh

Case ID : f66468b | Location : Bandarban District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Sun, 16 February, 2025

Case ID : f66468b

Bandarban District, Bangladesh

16 February, 2025

Hindu woman police officer found dead in Bangladesh

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Bandarban Town in Bangladesh, a Hindu woman police constable named Rumpa Das was found hanging at her house on 17th February 2025. She worked as a police constable at Bandarban Sadar Police Station. It was initially believed that she committed suicide due to a family dispute. Officer-in-Charge of Bandarban Sadar Police Station Masud Parvez sent her body to the morgue for autopsy, and investigations were conducted by the police. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the increasing vulnerability faced by Hindu minorities amidst rising hostility in the Islamic state of Bangladesh. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024, Bangladesh has plunged into chaos as Islamist extremists have taken advantage of the political turmoil to unleash a wave of terror and violence against the Hindu community. The Islamist mobs have attacked Hindu homes, burned them to the ground, and abducted women in a horrific descent into anarchy. Several temples have been destroyed in various parts of the Islamic country in a major crackdown on Hindus. Further, the arrest of Hindu priests has exacerbated the situation, with Hindu minorities protesting across Bangladesh seeking justice.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Attack resulting in death and under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime. Under this category, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. While the available details do not explicitly indicate a religious motive, the broader context cannot be ignored. When there is an ongoing ethnic cleansing based on religious identity, every crime in and of itself is assumed to be motivated by the same religious animosity even if there is a lack of specific religious marker in the immediate crime. During an ongoing ethnic cleansing, the dehumanisation of people based on their religious identity and the normalisation of religious hostility drives the crimes committed against them even when there is a lack of stated religious motive. For the purpose of documenting the 2024 ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hinduphobia Tracker is assuming religious motivation ab initio. If a case is specifically and beyond reasonable doubt proven to be driven by motivations other than religious hostility, it will post-facto be removed from the hate crime database.